How to Invest 100 dollars?

So, if you’re reading this article I suppose you are not an experienced investor and you are just about to make your first steps. I’m going to help you with that endeavour. However, do not expect me to dive right into stocks and things like that. Because if you want to invest your money, it doesn’t necessarily mean you want to be a professional investor. You just want to be smart about your money.

You may also expect me to advise investing in Oil.Vision, trying to sway you to company’s side. Nevertheless, I have no intent to affect your decision and will present multiple options. But before you make the first step, there is an educational moment to take care of.

Before You Invest: A Word of Caution

What’s the golden rule of investment? Do not invest the last money you have. Never. Unless you’re a heavy gambler and that’s what I would not recommend anybody to be.

Investing is about putting your extra money to work. So, the first thing you need to do is get out of debt, if you have any and get rid of credit card debts. After you’ve patched those financial holes, start a savings account to always have money stocked away just in case. It is crucial to have some savings before you start making any moves in the world of finances. Build up a safety cushion to last you at least 3 to 6 months in case you lose your source of income.

Once you check these boxes, it is time for you to take action. We are going to start with the most important thing in people’s lives ever. The pillar of all investments.

Invest in Personal Development

Expanding your skillset, gaining new knowledge and improving whatever skills you already have is a sure way to increase your chances for success. It is a long term investment and the most valuable anyone can make. So, how to invest these hundred dollars? There are two options and both are educational.

Pay for online courses

With educational platforms like Coursera and Udemy learning new skills is accessible and relatively cheap. You can try out some free courses on any topic you’d like (like investment and finances, for example) and then submit to a paid course and get a proficiency certificate. When it’s sale season prices can often go as low as $10, so you can learn a whole stack of skills like marketing, SEO, investment and development. This combo is going to prove useful later on. And if you are more of a creative type, you can hit a variety of art related courses from history of art and photography to 3D modelling and CG animation. Just use your wits and it’s going to pay off.

Personal development is the best initial investment. Even with Oil.Vision, providing up to 21% return of investment a $100 bill will turn into $120 over a year. A lot of online courses are free and offer a decent learning experience. Couple it with just one paid course in software development and you can get a job, making you way more than $20 a year. And then you can turn back to investment world.

And speaking of stacks, skill combinations proposed above are what Scott Adams calls talent stacks. What is it and who is Scott Adams? That’s where we gently transition to the next option — books.

Buy books

Knowledge is power and online courses are not the only source of this power. Books are accessible, they do not affect your schedule and often are more profitable due to price to volume of information ratio. There will be no one to answer your extra questions, but persistence is bound to let you figure everything out and digest the book properly. There are three books I would like to recommend you before you make your first steps. Nor I, nor Oil.Vision have any affiliation with these people and these books are of my personal choice:

“How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life”, a book written by Scott Adams can prove to be a valuable investment of time and money. Speaking of investing, sometimes it is about pattern recognition and being able to predict certain events. In his book Adams speaks about pattern recognition, talent stacks and why the variety of talents is more important than having just one super-talent, business and importance of communication skills like public speaking and persuasion. It only costs $18 for a hardcover on Amazon and some deals are as low as six dollars.

One notable person in the world of business and investment you might want to pay attention to is Gary Vaynerchuk. You can purchase his books on Amazon, or directly on his website. Gary Vaynerchuk is an online pioneer, who established the first online wine shop back in 1998. He shares the knowledge about starting businesses, navigating the modern media space, investments and recognising opportunities.

The next book is the basis for everyone who struggles financially and strives to change the situation for the best. It’s goal is to change your understanding of the very concept of personal finance and put you on the right track. Even though the book is fictional it still holds some valuable advice. This book is “Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not!” by Robert T. Kiyosaki. The most memorable and important idea in this book is how different people perceive what they spend money on. Kiyosaki draws a clear line between liabilities and assets and how different people perceive them:

“The rich buy assets. The poor only have expenses. The middle class buys liabilities they think are assets.”

Start a Small Business Online

Starting a small business is a profitable opportunity with a hundred bucks. In this day and age you do not need a particularly large sum of money to start your business.

First, think of what skills you have. What services can you provide? Laptop repairs? Are you a savvy when it comes to solving software issues? Writing? Drawing? Cleaning? Maybe you can teach people some skill like a foreign language? Seriously, anything you can do has a potential to become a business. Not a big one right away, it may be worth the effort.

Once you figure out what type of service you can provide go on social media and create business page accounts. Start with a Facebook page for your business, fill in all the info, set up a header picture (cover). Then create an Instagram account and link it to your FB page, set up a business profile, fill out a description of services you provide and invest in Facebook ads. This should be enough to gain first customers. The return of investment is likely to be significant in the long term. Your business may grow into something big eventually!

Flipping: buy and sell stuff

Ever been on Craigslist? Have you ever noticed those appealing offers you thought about like “Oh, my! That’s such a good price! Such a good thing. The condition is nearly perfect. I’m almost ready to pay extra!”? That’s what you’re looking for. Invest your $100 into buying things that you can sell for more and gain extra. You got some stuff laying around your house that you don’t use? Sell it too! Watch Gary Vaynerchuk’s video on how to make money flipping: Turning $75 in Pins and Hot Wheels Cars into $1,000 Plus.

Invest in (oil) ETF’s

What is that? I am not going to bury you under tons of info on that, let’s just get the general idea. ETFs are Exchange Traded Funds. Think of it as a basket combining different stocks, commodities and bonds. Investing in ETFs is considered to be one of the safest options for beginners. ETFs provide tax benefits, lower fees, stable growth and act as a long term investment and it is always wise to invest long term.

USO (United States Oil Fund) is probably the most popular ETF to invest today. You can see the list of oil ETFs here with closing prices and choose the best for you.

Apart from oil-industry-related ETFs you can explore this article to choose the ETFs for you. However, if you are more of a risky type, you can try stocks. That’s quite a gamble, but with a decent experience you can hit the spot.

Investing in Stocks

Here’s where another misconception hides — investing in stocks requires a lot of money. It is not true. You could have purchased Nvidia stocks for $8.5 a piece in July, 2010 and by now it would have increase more than ten times with $160 by November, 2018. The question is how to enter stock market and what do you need to buy stocks? The profit is obvious, but what’s the catch? You can call it luck, or you can get serious and admit it requires research efforts, and a deep analytic approach.

The topic is pretty extensive, but to get the basics you need to know this: most stock investments are available online; stock investment platforms charge fees for their services and there are two types of stock investment services. So your hundred dollars is likely to get thinner.

There are cheaper discount brokers like InteractiveBrokers, that take a small fee and allow you to invest in a variety of stocks form various industries. There also are full-service brokers, which offer full support, planning, management, but these are clearly out of your financial range, since these services are quite costly for a hundred dollar owner.

Your bet will be to make a research, find out the cheapest and the most reliable brokerage and invest in stocks that are going to grow in long term. It requires patience, wits and research.

Some online brokers like Suretrader offer free demo accounts with virtual money for you to practice. Zero profit, but zero risks too. A good way to grab a hold of what trading is like.

Modern Investment Methods

That’s exactly where Oil.Vision kicks in. Oil.Vision is one of the most accessible investment platforms. Low investment threshold of only about ¥10,000 (approx. $88), ease of registration and cutting-edge online accessibility around the globe make the platform a good choice for beginners. Various payment methods — from bank cards to PayPal and crypto wallets — coupled with high return rate of up to 21% provide a profitable experience.

Oil.Vision invest in oil facilities of various types (from downstream to upstream), and cooperate to provide prosperity to these facilities, increased income and profit for the company, investors and the aforementioned facilities based on different terms. The minimum return rate of 18% percent is a significant rate compared to a lot of options available today. On top of that, early investors become a part of Oil Billion Fund. This fund accumulates 10% of the profit Oil.Vision make. It holds a total amount of one billion Oil Vision tokens (an Oil Vision crypto currency). The profit is constantly redistributed among the owners of these tokens. For each ¥10,000 you invest you receive a bonus of 100 Oil Vision Share tokens, making you a shareholder of the ever growing fund.

Summary on how to invest $100

Whenever you have a problem to solve ask someone experienced for an advice. If there’s no such person around you, try it out for yourself. But the Internet is filled with lots of valuable info. You just have to pick and choose the right source. Your opportunities are endless, especially at this day and age.

To sum it all up, there are three major principles regarding money and investments:

Crush your debts.

Put personal development first.

When it’s finally time, invest wisely and choose what’s best for you at a particular moment.

Never invest in just one thing. Just like with acquiring different skills, investing in a variety of stocks (for instance) is going to increase your chances for success. That’s called diversification.

The level of risk varies a lot, but investment is always a risky endeavour and you should be cautious about when and where you place your money. At the end of the day, the best thing you can do with a spare hundred dollar bill is keep it. So for now, save it, take your time, and do at least some research. Once you feel you’re ready feel free to invest in whatever you choose. Be smart, educate yourself and grow the way that suits you better!